


In which Terushima is stupid and Futakuchi is protective

by Toboe1087



Series: Shared Memories [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, M/M, Physical Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 14:25:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17225714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toboe1087/pseuds/Toboe1087
Summary: Futakuchi had long ago promised himself that he would never, ever do something this stupid. This cliché. That no matter what details he saw in his soulmate’s memories, he wouldn’t go find him. That he would let the meeting occur naturally.Yet here he was, standing outside the Johzenji volleyball gym.





	In which Terushima is stupid and Futakuchi is protective

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Louie_writes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Louie_writes/gifts).



> Happy Birthday Louie!!! 
> 
> Obviously, I own none of the rights to either of these series. Those belong to Haruichi Furudate, along with whatever publishers, producers, etc., are involved with the series.

Futakuchi had long ago promised himself that he would never, ever do something this stupid. This cliché. That no matter what details he saw in his soulmate’s memories, he wouldn’t go find him. That he would let the meeting occur naturally.

Yet here he was, standing outside the Johzenji volleyball gym.

He’d seen a memory last year of his soulmate at the entrance ceremony for this high school. Seeing important events like those were rare, yet Futakuchi had been one of the lucky few to experience it. He’d been annoyed at the time, but now he was glad.

All Futakuchi had to do was go inside and find the player with the tongue piercing (and thank goodness he had yet to see the memory of that happening). The one named Terushima Yuuji. 

Then he’d know his soulmate.

Futakuchi kicked a rock. 

This whole thing was ridiculous. He shouldn’t even be here.

His soulmate was going to be annoying. All boundless energy and mischief and insistence on having _fun_. 

It was great to have fun and mess with people, but life couldn’t always be fun.

And his stupid soulmate knew it, no matter how much he played ignorant.

Which was why Futakuchi was here.

The memory he’d gotten last night had started with his soulmate’s dad yelling, drunk and upset. The man had then tried to hit his wife, but Futakuchi’s soulmate had intervened, taking the hit to protect his mother. The last thing in the memory had been his mother screaming his first name. 

Yuuji.

Futakuchi hadn’t known his first name before then.

The memory had been relatively recent, judging from the presence of the tongue piercing in his soulmate’s mouth. But who knew how long stuff like this had happened? The memories soulmates saw were supposedly random.

Futakuchi had gone straight downstairs and talked to his own parents about the memory, and they’d agreed that Yuuji needed a place where he could escape for a night (or longer), if necessary.

So here he was.

About to offer his soulmate an escape.

About to offer him a place in Futakuchi’s own house. 

About to meet his soulmate on his own terms, when he had claimed that he’d never do so. That he’d leave it up to a chance encounter. 

Futakuchi sighed and took the final few steps up to the gym door, then slid it open. He hadn’t wanted to stick out, so he’d taken the time to change out of his Dateko uniform and into some plain exercise clothes, but he still expected to cause _some_ ruckus as a stranger interrupting practice. 

No one glanced his way when the door opened.

No one stopped playing.

No coach or manager came over to see who he was. 

Practice just… kept going. Most of the players were facing off in two-on-two matches, and those that weren’t were watching avidly. 

Futakuchi cautiously took a seat at the side of the gym—he could wait a bit for practice to end.

It certainly didn’t take long to figure out which one was his soulmate. 

“Terushima,” after all, was yelled at quite frequently by the coach, despite being the team captain.

Futakuchi was entranced. 

He’d never seen his soulmate’s face.

His brown eyes were amazing, sparkling with the mischief and playfulness that Futakuchi had already come to expect. 

But his hair…. His hair was ridiculous.

As were all of the weird jump maneuvers his soulmate performed, though they at least worked, most of the time. It certainly would make blocking him difficult. 

He wanted to play against him.

Soon enough practice was over. Terushima turned cleaning up into a game, betting on who would pick up the most volleyballs, or on how fast they could take down the net or mop the floor. 

Needless to say, the end result wasn’t perfect, but it also didn’t take long. The coach didn’t seem to mind the missed spots, though, as he left soon after the team disappeared into the changing rooms.

Even now, no one paid Futakuchi any attention, which was confusing. Dateko would have interrogated him and kicked him out by now. Johzenji certainly was carefree.

When Terushima emerged again, now in a school uniform, Futakuchi nervously stood up. 

Still the boy didn’t notice him. 

Futakuchi sighed in frustration and marched over to him, “Does your team really not care if rival players watch your entire practice?”

Terushima froze, then turned to look at him. Those eyes focused on him, and Futakuchi felt his mouth go dry.

“Why should it matter? It’s not like we play the same way every game. We just do whatever is fun.” Terushima grinned suddenly and Futakuchi felt his heart stutter. “Were you casing us, then? What school are you from?”

“Your team is hardly worth casing.” Futakuchi rolled his eyes.

“Why not? We come up with lots of fun techniques.”

That comment received a scoff, “Techniques that are unreliable aren’t worth the effort.”

“Jeez, man.” Terushima shook his head, “Where’s your sense of fun?”

Now Futakuchi frowned, “Hard work is just as important as having fun.”

“Well, yeah. But the work should be fun.” Terushima grinned, “Or are you just not good enough? You still haven’t given me your school name.”

“Dateko. I’m next year’s captain.”

“Eh?” His eyes narrowed briefly, but it was gone so quickly Futakuchi almost thought he imagined it. “You guys are actually pretty good. Boring, but good.”

“We aren’t boring!” Futakuchi glared at his soulmate. “Our iron wall makes us the best defensive team in the prefecture. It’s amazing.”

“Riiiight.”

Futakuchi scowled at him, “I don’t know why I’m even arguing with you. You clearly have no sense.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” 

“Your plays have no strategy behind them.”

“We have fun! And we win a lot, so what does it matter?”

Futakuchi groaned. His soulmate wouldn’t listen to reason on that front, apparently. His goal should be to beat _everyone_ not just have fun and win _most_ matches. In his annoyance, Futakuchi blurted out the first thing he’d thought upon seeing his soulmate, “Your hair looks like you’re trying to imitate a hedgehog.”

Oops. He’d been trying to control his snark since becoming captain.

“Oi!”

Well, he’d already started, so…. “Or maybe a porcupine?” 

“What the heck, dude?” His soulmate puffed out his chest, “My hair is awesome! Way better than yours. Is that slant on purpose or did the hairstylist cut it that way in revenge for your insults?”

Futakuchi grinned. His soulmate was fine with snarkiness. Not only that, he would return it in kind. This would be fun.

“Oh please, _Yuuji_.” His grin widened as the boy’s eyes grew large at hearing his own first name, “My hairstylist flirts with me nonstop. She loves me.”

Terushima’s head was cocked to the side, his mouth twisted in confusion. “Pretty sure I never told you my name, bro.”

Futakuchi sighed, “There are other ways to know a name. You should know this by now.”

His soulmate’s grin returned and some of the tension left his shoulders, “Futakuchi, then?”

So he was capable of figuring things out. “Futakuchi Kenji.” He grinned, “And definitely not your bro.”

“Kenji.” Futakuchi froze at the way his first name sounded in his soulmate’s voice. He practically purred it.

Terushima stepped closer, a hairsbreadth from him, looking up at him with his chin jutted out defiantly. “Why are you here, Kenji? Your memories never made you seem like the kind of person to seek me out.”

Well, he’d never been one to beat around the bush… “Your father hit you.”

Futakuchi hated the alarm currently in his soulmate’s eyes.

Terushima took a step back, silent. When he finally spoke, his voice was softer. Futakuchi was surprised to find that he hated it. “I don’t talk about that, ok? It’s not cool.”

“I don’t care if you don’t talk about it, I saw it. I know it happened.” They were going to talk about it. This trip was not going to be a waste.

“I focus on the fun things outside the house, ok?” Terushima looked away, “That’s not fun. At all.”

Futakuchi slipped his hand into his pocket, then pulled out a piece of paper and held it out. “My phone number and address. If you ever need a place to escape to.”

Terushima stared at his hand in shock, silent. 

“Take it.” Futakuchi glared at his soulmate.

Terushima looked up at him, confusion and insecurity swimming in his eyes. Futakuchi hated it. Finally, Terushima spoke, “You came for that reason? To protect me?”

“You looked like you could use some help.” Futakuchi tried to think of a way to make the situation lighter, to crack a joke, but couldn’t come up with anything. Abuse just wasn’t funny. 

“I don’t need protection.” His soulmate was glaring, now.

“You just going to keep acting like a human shield? Like a hunk of meat that your dad can hit without any consequences?”

“I can take it.”

“Just because you can doesn’t mean you should, idiot. What if he gets in a good hit and you can’t play? What are you going to do then?”

Terushima looked off to the side, every muscle tense. “I can’t leave my mom.”

“Then bring her, too, if need be.” His parents hadn’t talked about that, but he was sure they wouldn’t mind.

Terushima stared at him, considering. “I can’t leave my team, either.”

“I’m just in the next town over. It’ll be a longer commute, but it’s possible.”

Terushima’s hand rose and gently took the paper. “This doesn’t mean anything. Just that I’ll consider it if things get worse.”

“Of course.” Stubborn idiot. Futakuchi let his own hand drop. He couldn’t force the guy to do anything. He knew that, but it was still frustrating. His soulmate hadn’t even bothered to argue that the hit had been a one-time thing, which meant it was happening often. It was happening often and there was nothing more Futakuchi could do about it. Well, he could call the police, but there was no way to prove soulmate memories, which meant there was nothing the police would be able to do unless his soulmate and mother cooperated, which they probably wouldn’t, or else they would have gone to the police already.

Futakuchi scowled in annoyance at the whole situation.

Terushima was fiddling with one of his earrings, mouth twisted down in thought. Finally his eyes connected with Futakuchi’s once more. “We should do something fun together. I can’t do dinner tonight, though. But tomorrow I could…. Meet me here at five?”

Futakuchi blinked at the abrupt topic change. “You want to have dinner?”

“Yeah.” His soulmate gave him a blinding grin, “We should get to know each other, right?”

“I.. suppose we should do something like that.” He really had just wanted to help Terushima, but now that they’d met it seemed stupid to ignore each other. 

“Awesome. And I’m going to text you. A lot.” Futakuchi swallowed. That grin should be illegal. There was this sharp edge of mischief in his eyes and in the twist of his lips, and it made him want to do entirely inappropriate things for a first-time meeting. 

He narrowed his eyes, “I’m blocking you if you annoy me.”

“Then I’ll just show up at your door.” Terushima was stepping closer again. Stepping closer and looking up at him with those eyes. Those eyes that were determined to do something.

The next thing Futakuchi knew, Terushima’s lips were slanting against his, and his world felt like it was on fire.

Then Terushima was back where he had been before, a few steps away and mischievous grin in place. “We should definitely do more of that tomorrow. See you around, Kenji.”

And then he walked around the corner of the gym. 

He was gone.

Futakuchi drew in a deep breath. His soulmate certainly was a whirlwind, but he didn’t seem to mind Futakuchi’s sense of humor or insults. That was nice.

He felt his phone buzz in his pocket and pulled it out.

Unknown Number: Hey slanty-hair. Yuuji here. Save my number or I’ll bug you forever.

So he had permission to use his first name? That was nice, though he'd been planning on doing so anyway. Futakuchi rolled his eyes and saved the number. 

_Kenji:_ Apparently you’ll be bugging me forever regardless of what I do. 

_Yuuji:_ Well, aren’t you a lucky guy, then. ;) Did you save my number?

 _Kenji:_ YES.

 _Yuuji:_ Awesome. See you tomorrow, slanty-hair.

 _Kenji:_ I never actually said yes, porcupine.

 _Yuuji:_ We both know you’ll be there. 

Futakuchi shoved his phone into his pocket. 

Stupid soulmate.

Stupid soulmate and his ability to get under Futakuchi’s skin.

Stupid soulmate and the fact that he was _right._

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos, comments, and feedback of all kinds are much appreciated! It's my first time writing these two characters, not to mention this pairing, so I hope I did them justice!


End file.
